


And We Run

by shesasurvivor (starkist)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anidala, F/M, Gen, Skywalker Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 08:04:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1597625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkist/pseuds/shesasurvivor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anakin and Padmé raise their family while on the run from the Empire. Oneshot, canon divergence. Written for Anidala Week on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And We Run

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Anidala Week's AU Day prompt. Normally I write fanfic for The Hunger Games, and I've never written Star Wars fic before -- this is my first time! But I've always wanted to explore the idea of Anakin and Padmé raising Luke and Leia together, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Enjoy!

Anakin Skywalker couldn't go through with it. He couldn’t. They were young, so young, and when he looked in their faces, all he could see was the child Padmé was carrying. His child. Their child. The very same one he was trying to protect. Wasn’t that why he had done this in the first place? Turned on Master Windu and taken his place beside Chancellor Palpatine?

It was. But despite the Dark Side that was beginning to cloud his mind, taking over his thoughts slowly, he could still feel he was doing the wrong thing. And he couldn’t go through with it.

“Master Skywalker?” the same youngling who had spoken out, searching for his guidance because he had trusted Anakin, implored again now.

It was trick to get them out of there unnoticed, but eventually he snuck them out through a sewer duct. “Get to Senator Organa’s apartment,” he instructed them. “Take public transport, and don’t draw attention to yourself, understand?

The blond boy who was now unofficially the leader of the group nodded. Anakin watched them leave, wondering if it had been a mistake. To send them by public transport, to send them to Senator Organa’s, to rescue the younglings at all. Because now he knew there would be no going back. But he sensed through the Force that his action had been the right move. Senator Organa would protect them once they made it to his apartment here on Coruscant.

Now there was only one thing left to do: he had to get home to his own apartment, quickly, and get Padmé out of there as soon as possible. Hopefully she would listen to him, believe his story about what had happened and why they had to leave, and not want to stick around and try to fight back or anything. She could be stubborn that way, which normally was one of the traits Anakin loved most about her. But she had to see why it would be useless this time. Maybe she would even sense it herself. Being pregnant with a Force sensitive child, sometimes Padmé seemed to have a touch of the Force herself. He sensed it often; sometimes it was almost as if they could communicate with each other wordlessly. That had been the case this very afternoon, in fact, before Anakin had screwed up their lives and future forever.

Padmé was already running to greet him when he touched down on the landing pad to their apartment. Leaping out of the cockpit, he wrapped her in his arms, and held her close. “Get everything you’ll need for you and the baby,” he told her. “We have to get out of here.”

“What’s going on?” Padmé leaned back and looked at Anakin with frightened eyes. “I could see the smoke rising from the Temple from here. I was worried sick!”

Anakin weighed whether or not he should tell her here; if it was even safe to do so. But Padmé needed to know the severity of the situation if he was going to convince her to go along with this.

“Palpatine has taken over,” he said. “He’s launched an assault against the Jedi Order across the galaxy. We need to move now if we’re going to get out of here alive.”

Padmé just stood and stared at him in shock, rather than moving to immediate action like Anakin had hoped she would. “I don’t believe it… “ she murmured, more to herself than anyone.

“Believe it,” he said. “I saw the whole thing with my own eyes. The Jedi are dead, and we need to get out now.”

“What about Obi-Wan?” Padmé asked, her voice low; afraid of what his answer would be.

“I don’t know,” Anakin shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything about his fate. And I can’t feel him through the Force.”

Her eyes dropped. “Then he’s gone.”

“He could be hiding his presence, if he knows about the order to kill him.” It was a distinct possibility, and one that provided a little comfort to Anakin. “We just have to hope he sensed the attack coming in time to dodge it.”

Padmé nodded thoughtfully. “What will we do?”

“We have to get off this planet immediately,” he said. “I’m not joking, Padmé. Take everything you’ll need for you and the baby, but we have to travel light.”

She didn’t question him any further. Quickly, they gathered only the essentials and evacuated their apartment with a final glance goodbye. They would not be returning to this life ever again.

They took public transport, just as they had when they traveled to Naboo before the start of the Clone Wars. They narrowly escaped a squadron of clone troopers that ambushed the place, sent over as soon as Palpatine discovered Anakin’s betrayal. The streets were chaotic after the news of the assault on the Jedi Temple broke across the city, but it only made it easier to blend in. Anakin and Padmé escaped for the Outer Rim undetected.

They drifted from city to city, planet to planet, never staying in one place for too long. It was the only way to escape the newly formed Galactic Empire’s notice. Padmé gave birth on Naboo, just as she wanted. But instead of her childhood home with her family gathered around to celebrate, it was in a lonely village far removed from the goings on of the galaxy. Both parents were shocked, overjoyed, and frightened when they realized she had been carrying twins all along. Making one baby live a life on the run would have been hard enough, let alone two.

They stayed in the village just long enough for Padmé to recover from giving birth. The twins, one boy and one girl, were given names. Luke had his father’s sandy blond hair and his mother’s gentle demeanor; Leia had her mother’s coloring and her father’s spirit. They were both strong in the Force. Maybe a little too strong, Anakin couldn’t help thinking. But the important thing was that they had survived, and so had Padmé, and the nightmare that had plagued him had been just that. Now he just had to keep them alive.

Two years passed on the Galactic Standard Calendar. The family adapted, slipping through the ever shrinking cracks in the Empire in order to stay alive. Sometimes, Anakin felt traces of Obi-Wan and Master Yoda through the Force; so they, too, had managed to survive. Good. But Anakin doubted they would ever see each other again. Training Luke and Leia would rest entirely on his shoulders. Every night, he worked with them, not ever planning on them reaching status of Jedi Knight. That ship had blasted off a long time ago. But it was safer if they had some control over the Force. The older they got, the more they could conceal themselves and prevent detection.

“This is too much for them,” Padmé said one evening. “They can’t keep living this life. They need stability.”

“You know why we have to keep running,” Anakin said. “It’s to protect them.”

“They’re children, Ani. There has to be someplace we could raise them where Palpatine won’t think to look.”

Anakin was silent a long time. Finally, he said, “I’ll think about it.”

But there wasn’t much thinking to do. Anakin knew, even before Padmé brought it up, that Luke and Leia needed a proper home. He also knew where that home needed to be; the best place they could go in order to avoid detection. The trouble was that he didn’t want to admit it. But he was a father now, and it, along with ‘husband,’ were the only titles he had left. So a few days later, he announced they would be moving to Tatooine.

“Are you sure?” Padmé searched his eyes, knowing how he felt about the planet he had escaped from when he was only a child himself.

“It’s our only option. It’s the safest place to go. He won’t look for us there.” And even if he had, Palpatine had probably already done so a long time ago. One sweep of the planet would be all that was needed to confirm that Anakin was not hiding on his old planet, and Palpatine would assume that he likely never would. Or at least, Anakin certainly hoped so.

Late one night, the family turned up at the Lars’s front door. A wind was picking up, which meant a sand storm would soon follow. Beru hurried them in, shocked at the sight of them. Owen and Beru permitted them to stay a few months, while Anakin learned moisture farming from Owen. Padmé helped Beru around the homestead. Finally, Anakin purchased enough to buy a small farm of his own, and moved his family there, installing them safely on the homestead where they would blend in with the rest of the Tatooine environment.

Anakin was right about moving to Tatooine in the end. He and Padmé raised Luke and Leia, telling them nothing about their past lives on Coruscant or the Jedi Order. When the news that a rebellion had sprung up against the Empire, it took everything inside of Padmé not to seek it out and join. Only the sight of her two children could tame the desire. As the twins grew and Luke found himself wanting to attend the Imperial Academy, Anakin managed to keep him there as long as he could through claims that Luke was needed to help on the farm. It wouldn’t last--Luke had the same impatience and sense of adventure that had plagued Anakin was a teenager. And those traits were what lead to the life they were living now. The life the whole galaxy was living now, under Palpatine’s thumb.

**  
**He just had to believe in the rebellion. They were their only hope now.


End file.
